


Puzzle 3301|Prologue

by KaileyFox



Series: Puzzle 3301 [1]
Category: Layton Kyouju Series | Professor Layton Series
Genre: Gen, P3301, Puzzle 3301
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-05-07
Packaged: 2018-10-29 03:33:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10845630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaileyFox/pseuds/KaileyFox





	Puzzle 3301|Prologue

_Trembling fingers. That’s all he could think about. _Trembling fingers and wobbling legs. Like they were made of jelly—the only thing he could choke down for lunch.__

           Don’t think about lunch. Else you’ll be seeing it again…

_His hair was dishevelled, he just knew it. He’d run his hand through enough times in the past twenty minutes to require a good hour-long combing. And the sweat. Slick and cold. A few drops separated now from the colony that had beaded at his russet sideburns, slipping down his pale cheeks, tracing his jawline. The combination of moisture and heat made his flesh crawl. And the collared dress shirt underneath the waistcoat all underneath the large, buttoned lab jacket didn’t exactly remedy the situation… He pulled at his tie. Had the thing tightened since his arrival on this stage?_

           Oh god…

__He stopped fidgeting at once to look up. The stage. So consumed with anxiety he was he’d nearly forgotten. And now that he recalled his situation, he was nearly swallowed whole.__

           What if I lose my voice the moment I begin to speak? Or I faint? What if I trip while walking up to the stage…?

_He glanced to the crowd, his stare flitting from shadowed figure to shadowed figure. There must have been thousands here!_

_Thousands. Meaning two-thousand scrutinising eyes trained onto his plump body like infrared lasers. And an infinite amount of judgement riddling him like bullets…_

          Pull yourself together, _he attempted to reassure himself, though tugging at his soaked collar didn’t provide the thought much conviction._ You’re a physicist. Intelligent enough to understand what’s unknown to most of society! All you must do is tell them what they wish to hear…

_As a newly employed physicist he hadn’t had much chance to give many presentations. Though, that didn’t matter much in this situation, he supposed. Even if he did possess experience in flattering other fellow scientists, this speech would be unlike any other. His viewers were not equal to him in any way. Not even higher ups like parliament. Instead, they were members of a rather powerful organisation, so far above on the societal chain of command, they existed beyond it. He’d been told it had hands in every faction of the world, able to seize hold of whomever it needed—individual people, cities, even governments of whole countries—to achieve its goals yet it remained unseen, unheard and unknown. That was—the physicist swallowed—until someone made a mistake. Then the organisation was the last thing that individual simultaneously saw, heard and knew before they mysteriously disappeared. He twisted a button on his lab coat. Somehow, the more the jacket pulled taut against his large build, the smaller he felt._

_A loud clatter sounded from far above, making the physicist flinch, and a spotlight was suddenly glaring down upon the podium at the front of the stage. It was time… He took a deep breath, allowing his lungs to fill with air, then began to walk._

There’s no need to fear them, _he reassured one last time. His footfalls were practically deafening, each heavy plod punching through the dense silence of the shadowy crowd that threatened to ensnare his attention. But, he somehow fought against it, focusing on the podium alone._ They see themselves as the most dominant force in the world. They’re arrogant, narcissistic! After all, it is _my_ scientific knowledge, _my_ working behind the scenes that has allowed them to exist at all. Without me, they wouldn’t even have a clue as to how to go about locating the Powers. If I must alter some of the details to earn my pay, so be it.

_He looked off to the side._

As long as I choose my words wisely, they’ll never know I’ve not completed their request…

_With this final warning, the physicist stepped up to the podium and began._

_“Good evening…” he said. “M-My name is…Zero-five as you’ve labelled me…” With each word, he could feel his confidence slipping and so he faced his fear head on, looked out into the crowd and threw their hidden judgement back at them…or so he attempted. Instead, he unintentionally noted the rows upon rows of chairs towering above the stage…above him… Each one hosting a higher rank than the last. Every one of those ranks capable of taking his life… His confidence plummeted yet again._

_“I-I’m Zero-five… A-At one point I was but a n-no one…to you… But now, after decoding your cypher, I…am considered someone—an intelligent individual, Subject Zero-five—in your eyes…who can provide you with results. Y-You certainly won’t be disappointed…” He paused. Peeked up. No one was readying a weapon to kill him as of yet… he acknowledged. Perhaps they weren’t judging him as harshly as he’d first thought… He cleared his throat and spoke up a bit. “You see… I not only solved your puzzle, but understood the hidden message within its solution. Your goal, which you’ve been working so diligently towards for aeons, is to harness the power of time. This desire is not unheard of._

_“Time and time travel, the ability to change the past and witness the future, this has been on man’s mind since the beginning of time itself. And though once impossible, we have discovered new technologies for overcoming such a feat. This is precisely why I have gathered the organisation here today.” And suddenly, as he thought of his goals, of how his speech must be resonating with them, Zero-five was filled with a rush of self-assurance. He leaned into the microphone and raised his voice with his next words. “For you, I have built a time machine!” He paused for a moment, waiting for the crowd to react, then, too late, recalled the demanding audience to whom he was presenting. Once again he was reduced to a sweaty, fidgeting mess, worse than ever before… “Th-This time m-machine…will not only send objects through time…but also draw out the very P-Power you’ve sought… It will be ready quite soon I’m happy to annou—”_

_“Soon?”_

_Zero-five cut himself off at this interruption, the silence that now collapsed down upon the auditorium once more pressing against his chest, his lungs, his throat…_

_“S-Sorry…?”_ _he stuttered. Had he said something wrong? The lower front rows from which the voice had spoken were reserved for inferior ranks of the organisation, but the tone had held so much clout any confidence that had remained inside him now melted away through his feet, leaving his legs feeling like jelly yet again._

            _“Didn’t we agree, Subject Zero-five,”_ _another voice recounted, “the time machine would be ready_ tonight _?”_

            _The physicist’s mouth grew dry as he replayed through his mind all he had just said. The test… Time travel… Time machine… Then he realised his mistake._ ‘Soon…’ _Hadn’t he just reminded himself to choose his words wisely?!_

 _“Tonight…yes…”_ _His words came slowly, his eyes flitting about the floor as if searching for answers…or a hole to jump into… “That is what I meant by ‘soon’…”_

            _“Are you lying to_ us _, Subject Zero-five?”_

            _The physicist winced as if this accusation had been as tangible as a punch in the teeth._

_“I…I guarantee the time machine will be ready…”_

_“Tonight?” yet another member repeated in a firm demand._

           “ _Y-Yes!_ ”

_Zero-five grit his teeth, closing his eyes wearily. He was in trouble… He hadn’t finished the machine fully and though it was more likely to succeed than malfunction at this point, his scientific instinct shouted to withhold testing. Even a one thousandth of a per cent failure rate meant something could go wrong! But of course he couldn’t possibly tell the organisation this… It was crucial, absolutely imperative, he reassure them! Or else he may lose his position, his money… He squeezed his eyelids tight. …and his own life…_

_“Yes, tonight!”_ _he repeated, forcing an inflection of enthusiasm to mask the terror that saturated every fibre of his being. His mind worked through plan after plan to regain their trust. Tell them something incredible!_ _“I will run it this evening using…one of my colleagues! You will be the first to see a human being travel through time and return…”_ _he hesitated, “unharmed…”_

_There was a pause as Zero-five waited for any sign of confirmation and when none were forthcoming, he assumed this was a signal to move on with the rest of his speech. But just as he began, unsatisfied and suspicious utterances rose from the crowd._

_“Wha…?” he himself uttered, watching on in dismay as member after member began to stand from their chairs and line up in rows along the ascending isles. They were leaving! “I’m not done!” It was clear, however, the organisation wouldn’t waste another moment listening to what they had already deemed unimportant. Something else… He needed something else to stop them! “If—_ when _—this test succeeds,” he leaned over the podium as he desperately called them back, “it will work grand for the Powers!”_

_There came the sound of someone turning swiftly around—the sharp clack of a footfall, the crinkle of a well-ironed suit—before the flash of light glaring off numerous medals and badges caught Zero-five’s eye._

_“Enough of your pathetic prattling,”_ _a voice, quiet, and cold enough to send a chill up his spine, snapped at him._ _“We will arrive at the laboratory at seven o’clock sharp. When we do, the machine_ will _be ready.”_

_The foreboding tone was enough to frighten him but Zero-five was completely paralysed upon seeing the man’s eyes glowering down upon him. This was the leader—the Commander—of the organisation, he realised, and an ominous inkling told him the man never spoke to an outsider unless that individual would be one of the few to mysteriously disappear…_

__These thoughts had preoccupied Zero-five not more than a split second and yet when he returned, he suddenly found himself standing totally and completely alone._ They were gone, the organisation. He looked to the door. No sign of it having been used at all… He looked to the floor. No trap hatch. Then the walls, and the ceiling. There was nothing they could have escaped through that fast, and yet they were gone… And he should have been relieved. They were no longer here to observe his every move, every word, every mistake. But their presence seemed to linger, causing him to feel even more paranoid._

_He didn’t have time to ponder. One thing he knew was certain: the organisation’s abrupt departure was more a problem than when they had first arrived. His speech was meant to be a sort of appetiser for their minds, some food for thought while they waited to see the machine in action. But rather than enticing the organisation, he had repulsed them. Perhaps it had been silly to think he could ever win them over with mere words, details altered or not. Yes, he needed something more. He must_ show _them the time machine would indeed work as he said it did._

__Unfortunately for him, unlike words, he couldn’t alter the details of an unsuccessful experiment the organisation witnessed with their own eyes…__

            _With this final foreboding weighing on his mind, Zero-five hurried off for the laboratory and set to work straightaway on the time machine. For hours he laboured tirelessly—hammering, testing, nailing, testing, soldering, testing… However, any modifications were ineffective as each test subject resulted in a rather fiery failure._

_Despite his now frazzled nerves and weary limbs tempting him to give in, Zero-five knew he couldn’t stop, and as his second wind forced him onward, he realised he could have cut his time in half, possibly even succeeded by now if he’d utilised some assistance. His colleague… She wasn’t exactly the brilliant physicist he was, but maybe she could save him… In a rush of anticipation, he rang his colleague, speaking rapidly, keeping the conversation short so as to deter any unwanted questions. He didn’t have the time to explain…and there was no reason for her to know his intentions anyway. They just needed to get this done and done right._

_But even with his colleague’s help, it seemed no amount of effort put in by one, two or any number of physicists would ever make the machine function properly. Each and every test continued to fail, solidifying Zero-five’s worries the machine was not ready, and by the time the organisation was meant to arrive he was at wits’ end._

_“Why are you so worried?”_ _his colleague asked in playful exasperation as she hung up her lab jacket, heading for the break room. It was nearly seven, two hours since her friend had called her in, and she hadn’t the chance to enjoy tea before leaving._ _“Let’s continue working on it this week. We’ll get it eventually!”_

_They didn’t have eventually… Zero-five thought, palm pressed to his forehead, elbow digging into his leg. They had tonight and that was it! What to do…? What to do?!_

_But he knew he was out of time. He’d have to take drastic measures now. Jumping to his feet, Zero-five strode into the break room and gripped his colleague’s arm, dragging her away from the table._

_“What are you doing?” she yelped, barely catching her footing. “The least you could do for calling me here so late is allow me my tea! Might I remind you,” she added, sulking, “I was in the middle of celebrating my fiancée’s initiation as a professor as well…”_

_“I need you to be a volunteer to test the time machine,” Zero-five said. She gave him a funny look, but he swept on before she could interrupt. “You must!”_

_Just then, the door opened and Zero-five didn’t need to hear the multitude of footsteps clacking inside to know who it was. The organisation was here. Struck with terror, he took his colleague by the shoulders and hid behind a wall, both trying to keep her from seeing the throng of black suits and they from seeing them. But it was already too late._

_“Bill, what is the meaning of this?” his colleague peeked out into the crowd, lowering her voice to a nervous whisper. “Did you invite the whole of London?!”_

           Think fast… How to get her to comply…?

_“They…got word of the time machine and now they wish to see it…” Yes, that’s a convincing excuse… “They’ll want a human subject, though…”_

_“But it still doesn’t—” she began before an impatient call cut her off._

_“Subject Zero-five, where are you? We’ve not got all night!”_

_“Subject Zero-five…?” his colleague asked, bewildered._

_He didn’t pause to answer her query nor had he wanted to in the first place. Some things were best left up to imagination… With her by the wrist, Zero-five rushed off to meet the organisation. He knew what he had to do._

_“Yes, hello, everyone,” he sputtered. “T-This is my colleague and she will be assisting me in demonstrating our greatest invention yet!”_

_She gave a curt nod while glaring sideways at Zero-five, trying to catch his eye._

_“Please…” she called to him. Still he didn’t look and she gasped as her friend jerked her towards the time machine. What was he thinking…?_

_“L-Ladies and gentlemen!” Zero-five decreed. “The moment you’ve all been waiting for!”_

_“Wait!” his colleague tried again._

_He pressed a few buttons…_

_“I will now demonstrate…”_

_“Stop!”_

_…Turned a few dials…_

_“…in this lab…”_

_“Please!”_

_…typed an equation…_

_“…The power of space time!”_

_…then finally, Zero-five looked into his colleague’s eyes._

_Everything seemed to pause for a moment as she watched him, tacitly willing him to let her go. But his blue eyes narrowed, shining hard and cold as ice. And it was then the truth collapsed down upon her. He…was using her… He didn’t consider her a friend. He barely considered her a person… No, she was a test subject. Like the pencil earlier that had exploded or the paper that had caught fire. She was an object to be used, all for his personal gain._

_And she would perish because of it._

           Ka-chunk!

_With this final clatter, Zero-five threw a lever and the time machine whirred to life._

_For but a moment the tension in the room seemed to lift as heartbeat after heartbeat the machine simply hissed and sputtered, its gears working, the hands of its clock face tick-tocking in time. Zero-five was utterly awestruck, the gears of his own mind churning as he digested that his experiment had been a success. That money would soon be his…! Even his colleague began to straighten from her cowering position, nearly smiling as relief flooded through her. Maybe time travel really was possible. Maybe she wouldn’t die after all!_

_And then this moment passed. It started with a soft clank as something inside fractured, clacking and working against itself, growing louder and longer and more violent before the entire mechanism snapped in two. Suddenly, the gears weren’t turning, but gyrating, faster and faster and the readings on the machine’s screen repeated thousands, millions of lines of red ‘error’ messages and the hands of the clock were spinning out of control… Everyone in the lab began to run. The colleague, taking her first step towards safety out of the collapsing hunk of metal. Zero-five, just beginning to turn round. The members of the organisation, backing up, all moving as one._

_But it was already too late. There came a shockwave, fast and forceful. Then a blaring noise that shredded all eardrums in range. A white hot fire. Grey rising smoke. A wall. Drops of blood. The floor. A bleary thought of multi-coloured Powers… Yellow, orange, red…_

_Then black._

_Wake up…_

           Slowly, painfully, Zero-five returned. Everything was suddenly very quiet. Very still. A chill settled on his exposed face and neck and persistently pressed against his clothing, nearly seizing his arms through his thin sleeves. A migraine pulsed through his head with each heartbeat. There was an occasional plop of thick globs off in the distance, then the stuffing lining his ears cleared and sounds became crisp, the plopping globs turning to drips of water droplets. He began to open his eyes. For but a moment after, the machine, his colleague, every member of the organisation and the lab remained before him as memory and reality collided, then all of it—all thirty or so years—swiftly melted away. His surroundings reformed into his current location—another laboratory, underground, cold, wet, and grey with stone. He gave a heavy sigh, then a gruff, wry chuckle. Once again he’d slipped into the past. Funny… He didn’t seem to need a time machine for that. Not as of late, at least…

           What had happened back then… It felt as though it’d only been yesterday. This was not because the memories were vivid. Time had eaten away at them, making them patchy at best, and this was especially so for those after the experiment had gone array. He knew the time machine had detonated. His colleague had been killed. More than half the members of the organisation had perished. But the details—the sights, sounds, scents, feelings—of the memories were absent.

           No, these memories were familiar for an entirely different reason. Zero-five placed a hand on his once smooth forehead, now winkled with age, drawing his fingers through thin, grey hair and looked about. At the moist stone. The single lamp above whose sickly yellow light was nearly drowned out by the vast, encroaching darkness. The table in which he had experimented again and again in an effort to find something, anything. And then, that vile sheet of paper declaring his last day of freedom. That explosion and all the ruminations it had etched into his mind were connected to this. His demise.

           He had spent years covering it up… So much money, so much power and influence he had been provided, all of which he was forced to use as dirt to bury what had happened. But then those two had come along… Digging up that dirt, raising the incident from the dead like the rotting corpse it was… He’d only wanted his money. Ever since he had got involved with the organisation, that was all he’d ever desired. Money and just a tad of influence in the world. But this dream had failed… Not only had that incident taken it away from him, but now those two men—a professor and a reporter—were attempting—succeeding—at throwing him into a dump…a right bloody rubbish tip filled with lowlifes and thugs! Someone of his intellect certainly didn’t belong there! If only the boy had died alongside his parents… If only he had killed himself in his madness… Then he wouldn’t have to endure at least part of this suffering.

           But…Zero-five thought as the present and all it held for him fully returned. He had a plan. From his trouser pocket he withdrew just the tip of a photograph—his trophy. It had taken his own kidnapping, a near-death experience, the destruction of the city that provided just a small percentage of the sum he’d truly wanted for him to become so crafty, and soon he’d use such cunning to enact his revenge…on everyone. He only needed one more very special man for this equation to work.

           Just then, sharp clacking footfalls echoed on the stone steps outside, loudly announcing someone’s presence.

           And he was here.

           A heavy steel door began to open, its creaking reverberating all about the area, and a bright, unnatural light from a very different section of the lab, one not even he was allowed to enter, gradually poured in. It filled nearly every nook, every crevice, everything—except the one who had let it in. He remained a silhouette, the slim man standing at the entryway, his eyes—or at least the undamaged one—moving in the last bit of dark veiling him, surveying the area, like a predator before the hunt. And like all good predators, he hunted best in the dark. He closed the groaning door again, the light retreating, darkness falling once more until it swallowed him whole. Then he began. _Clack…Clack…Clack…_ Those sharp footfalls echoed about, drawing nearer and nearer, and Zero-five was left to listen like a fish alerted to the presence of a shark. Suddenly a flash from the single lamp’s light glinted off something in the dark. That was how close he was already… Zero-five thought. The glimmer was from a multitude of medals pinned to the man’s chest. He was, after all, the Commander of the organisation. Not the same bloke who had reprimanded him all those years ago when he’d stood shaking up on that horrid stage. He’d been killed, hence the reason he was still alive…though just barely. This man was entirely different. And far more intimidating… Zero-five glanced to the Commander as he now entered the light, focusing on his left eye. He shivered. Things could go south rather quick here if he didn’t calculate this out right. The extraction process had not been started and if he learnt of that… But as long as he kept his plans in mind, he had nothing to worry about…

           “Good evening, Zero-five,” the Commander said, his words rumbling like grating rocks.

           This sentence would have been a greeting if said by anyone else. But Zero-five knew from prior visits and past experience this wasn’t so with the Commander. Instead, he was testing him. Prompting him to show his obedience.

           “Good evening, Commander Thanat,” he returned quickly, crossing a fist over his heart. He absolutely despised bowing to this man who had been treating him like a puppet for decades now, controlling and torturing him… It made him sick. But he had to remember this charade was about over. Soon everyone would be his puppet to control…

           “ _Subject_ _Zero-five…_ ” The physicist jumped to attention at the Commander’s rumbling call. “You are listening, yes?”

           “M-My apologies, sir. Please continue…”

           “It’s about time for your final trial.” The Commander folded his hands behind his back, his perfectly ironed black suit crinkling around his slim build. “I suppose this was inevitable. You’re prepared as is?”

           And much like the Commander’s greeting, such a question was not really a question, either. He _was_ prepared as is. If he wasn’t, he most certainly would be in a matter of seconds.

           “Yes, sir. I’ll be transported this evening…” He looked hopefully at the Commander. “If…you’ve found a solution for helping me, though, I can continue—”

           “We can’t interfere.”

           Zero-five’s brow furrowed. This wasn’t what they’d discussed…

           “Not at all, sir…?”

           “Not yet.” The Commander shot him a look from his undamaged right eye. “We interfere, we risk revealing our search for the Powers.”

           Again, Zero-five glanced to the man’s left eye. That black eyepatch… Thanat’s glower was already frightening enough, but what was underneath that… He shook his head. He must suppress his fears, listen carefully to what Thanat was saying. After all, his own plans would intertwine with the man’s. And the moment he was done giving him that information, he could begin setting his plot in motion. Now, for him to test the Commander.

           “F-Forgive me in advance for asking, sir, but why waste your valuable time visiting if not to discuss how you’ll help me? Surely you’ll want me to continue the extraction process?”

           The Commander closed his eye, his white-grey brow knit with impatience, emphasising the wrinkles of age…or they would have been of age if such an element still affected him. “I’m getting to that, Zero-five. Can’t you curb your selfishness for one moment?”

           “A-Apologies, sir…” He smiled internally. So far, so good…

           “These recent events have compromised the plans I’d slaved over for decades now.” The Commander thought of the Powers, how they were now just as far out of his reach as all the answers they would have provided him… But he hadn’t come this far to face defeat. “I will be forced to rework them in the end. In order to begin this process and in as timely a manner as possible, I must gather some information from you.” He trained his stony stare upon Zero-five. “Can I trust you this time to not be so incompetent you send me on another goose chase? Because, if not…”

           Zero-five glanced quickly to the eyepatch again and sputtered, “Y-Yes, sir. I humbly apologise again for any false information I supplied in the past…” _That itself is a lie._ “What would you like to know?”

           “Firstly, the experiment.” Zero-five watched as just the hint of a wince crossed the Commander’s features. He, in turn, allowed another very slight smile to cross his own. “I do hope its memories have not returned…”

           “No, sir. The chances of that happening dropped to practically nil the moment it fused with a human.”

           “Very good.” The Commander nodded curtly, his mind working, calculating, setting new parameters. “This may act as a double-edged sword, but it will open many opportunities to fulfil the end goal.”

           Zero-five shifted slightly. “A quick interjection about our original plans, if I may, sir… The professor… Is he still…?”

           “I told you I’d be busy with the other project,” he dismissed. The professor would be useful, but for now he had other much larger conditions to contemplate.

           “I see…”

           “Now, my second enquiry. I’ve spoken with the archaeologist about the Guardians and their puzzles and it would seem bonding with the experiment will assist in opening our eyes.” Another wince crossed the Commander’s features. Longer this time. “Where is it?”

           Zero-five smiled again. “In the back, resting.” He had only a theory as to what was causing the man’s pain, but… Again, he thought of the photograph, of his trophy. His plans might be what pushed him over the edge… How grand it would be to control the most powerful man in this world!

           “You’ve at least made some progress with the extraction, I hope?”

           And with just this one question, Zero-five’s arrogance vanished. His worst fears had come true… Thanat was asking about the extraction! He glanced into Thanat’s one good eye. Like obsidian, it was hard, cold and dark. So very dark. Like a black hole that pulled the truth right from his lips.

           “M-My apologies, Commander Thanat,” he stuttered. Yes, it had been years and nothing had surfaced, but that wasn’t his fault! He attempted squaring his shoulders, meeting Thanat’s firm regard. This, however, was a mistake. Much had happened since the time machine’s explosion, but even just catching a glance of the eyepatch in his peripheral and now with Thanat’s added anger… It thrust him right back onto that stage when he stood before the organisation, his form quivering in terror. “Th-The process still hasn’t…produced anything yet, sir…”

           The Commander tipped his pointed nose up just slightly, fixing Zero-five in a crushing stare.

           “So you’ve said in the past…” And then— _clack_ —he began to step forward. “You’ve been rather distracted tonight, Zero-five. And I sense this has nothing to do with aiding my plans…"

          Zero-five swallowed, eyes wide, all thoughts reeling with one repetitious phrase. _Fight or flee._ Out of the two, he could do neither. “M-My deepest apologies, Commander! I—”

_Clack._

           “I’m beginning to think”—the Commander continued, lifting a hand to that horrid eyepatch—“you’ve been giving me false information yet again.”

           “Please, sir…!”

 _Clack._ He began to lift the patch.

           “Perhaps the cypher wasn’t solved…‘as intended’?”

           “Sir…!”

           He stopped, leaned in, Zero-five pressing his plump body against the wall, clenching his eyes closed.

           “An excuse used to further your own plot…?”

           And then, just as the Commander revealed the very bottom of his damaged eye, Zero-five blurted, “A-Another puzzle!”

           The Commander paused just centimetres from Zero-five, his fingers fixed at the cusp of his patch. He watched the pitiful man’s lips tremble, listened to each choppy breath, smelled his fear.

           “Hmm…?”

           “Th-There’s been…” he paused, swallowing, squeezing his eyes even tighter. He didn’t need to see how close the man truly was to feel his sharp scrutiny like a dagger held right up against his throat, dissecting his every move. “There’s been another puzzle…”

           “Go on.”

           Zero-five ground his teeth. He hadn’t wished to reveal this bit of his own plan, but if it kept him from being tortured… “It’s…it’s about…”

           “Go on…” Thanat coaxed.

           Maybe he could lie a bit to keep him from knowing everything…? But if Thanat found out… “I-It’s about…the cell…”

           “What about it…?”

          No! Just tell him the truth! “It won’t be j-just any cell…”

           “Say what you need to say, Zero-five…” The grating rocks of the Commander’s usual tone sounded more akin to the raucous crushing of boulders as he spoke through clenched teeth. He replaced his fingers just under his eyepatch.

           Zero-five swallowed harder. “I-It’s…”

           And then, he crumpled. It had hit him just as the time machine’s detonation had all those years ago. First the initial pain, so swift his brain knew about it before his body felt it, his unconscious forcing him to the floor before he was consciously aware he was even moving. Then the shockwave. Agony, sheer and excruciating, slammed into every fibre of his being, crushing him even further into the ground. His blue eyes bulged from his head, his mouth gaped, his hands scrabbled at his throat as spit and foam ran down the sides and strangled noises squeezing out through strained vocals.

           “H-H-HEL…!” Zero-five tried to scream. “ELP…ME…!

           But the Commander only studied the weak man, indifferent to his wheezing and writhing.

_Pathetic._

           “You should be grateful I’ve not yet strung you up by your neck.” He replaced the patch and Zero-five drew a long, gasping breath before he collapsed and laid still, the rapid rising and falling of his chest his only movement. “Continue. Now.”

           However, the Commander received only a choke and sputter.

_Absolutely pathetic._

           One moment Zero-five was laying on the cold, wet ground, dazedly focused on his regulating heartbeat, his shallow breaths, his returning consciousness… Then there came a sharp clack, a flash of light and movement, the feeling of something hard slamming against his sternum, and his head was spinning once more.

           “ _Tell me_ …” boomed a voice all around him. “ _Now!_ ”

           “Th-The Guard…!” Zero-five squealed, eyes wide with terror. He moved his legs, felt them churning in the air. The Commander had him by the collar of his shirt! “The Guardian has added a seal!”

           And suddenly, Zero-five was on the floor once more. There came another movement from Thanat, so sudden it caused him to flinch and curl up in a foetal position. He stayed like this for several heartbeats, whimpering in expected pain. But when Zero-five didn’t feel as if his throat was about to collapse or his chest was about to explode, he slowly looked up from his shielding arms to Thanat…and saw he was the one in immense pain this time.

           “A seal…?” the Commander hissed, pressuring a hand to his forehead in an attempt to suppress the headaches that nearly split his skull.

           “Y-Yes, sir…” Zero-five responded, watching on. If he was in this much agony from his mentioning the Guardian…

           Another puzzle… the Commander deliberated. He couldn’t believe it… It might take years to solve! First Zero-five’s trials leading to the inevitable…now this… And he supposed that’s just what she had wanted!  He sucked in air through his teeth at the thought. This would halt the extraction process for far too long… And the other Powers… What to do…?

           Whilst the Commander mulled over these developments, Zero-five began to contemplate himself. He was sick of Thanat, of the organisation itself. He was sick of being worried. Sick of having his life held above his head… He uncurled himself and shakily sat up, his cold eyes never leaving the Commander. Of course, Thanat would never kill him. He was far too valuable to the man. But the torture was enough. And he was so very sick of that too…

           But what he had just experienced. It hadn’t all been pain. He had learnt something from it, something that had finally solidified his working theory about Thanat. The man suffered headaches whenever the Guardian was mentioned. And if that was the case… He thought again of the photograph.

           It was a rather good job he had already planned well in advance. The only equation he hadn’t calculated out yet was how he’d continue to use the archaeologist. He supposed it would be rather arduous, but perhaps he could still pull some strings… He glanced again to Thanat who was still recovering. The man had told him some very valuable information just now and he didn’t care if he wasn't finished. He’d had enough. He’d let the other man do the rest if need be. It was time to set things in motion.

           “Commander Thanat,” Zero-five began slowly, easing into his ruse. “I know you’re suffering and it may be difficult to consider this…” He dug in his pocket and produced the back of the photograph which was scrawled with chaotic lines, etched over and over again. They seemed to resemble a name. “But, please, if anything might happen to jeopardise your use of the professor, involve this man. He too played a part in wrongfully convicting me and destroying your original plans.” Zero-five smiled on the inside, keeping his actual expression sympathetic. Thanat had just begun to straighten, but soon he’d be on his own knees… “And this man destroyed something else, as well.” He turned the photo around. “Nearly your entire life.”

           Upon looking to it, the Commander was given but a second to study the photo. A man, early twenties with russet hair… An oval face… A rather thin stature… Dressed in a prison uniform…

           Then it hit him.

           A hand flew to the Commander’s forehead as images flashed behind his eyes. His home. His family. That…monstrosity…! And the overwhelming, suffocating flames! He placed his other hand on the experimenting table, leaning his full weight into the frigid steel surface as his knees buckled, nearly dropping him to the ground.

           “You’re in pain…” Zero-five said, his voice apprehensive, his demeanour shrinking with feigned worry. His eyes, however, stared the man down, cold and hard as ice. “I shouldn’t have said anything…”

           “Spare me your…” the Commander whispered through the throbbing caused by the flashbacks. He couldn’t stop them this time and they continued to multiply, swarming against the inside of his skull until it was fit to burst. “Spare me your sympathy… No amount of pain…will obscure the truth from me…!” He suddenly looked up at Zero-five, forcing his wincing eye wide. “Tell me what you know!”

           The spark was started. Now to fan the flames.

           “This may come as quite the surprise, sir, and I would have told you earlier but I knew… _this_ was what would happen…” Zero-five moved the photo closer to the Commander who instinctively shrunk away. “He’s the madman who was behind London’s destruction, sir.”

           More flashbacks. More destruction. More rage…and tears. The Commander lifted a trembling hand and ripped the photo from Zero-five’s fingers, moving it into view, forcing himself to look despite the excruciating anguish, staring at it as if willing it to burst into the same fire that now seared his insides.

           “I know you’ve been searching rather diligently for answers, sir,” Zero-five continued, studying Thanat. “You must have lost loads of sleep, skipped so many meals, all to figure out what had happened…” The Commander began to tremble. “I can’t imagine the nightmares, sir. Forcing you to relive that tragedy again and again…” The Commander’s lips parted in a grimace. His trembling grew more violent. “And the thoughts that haunted you every moment of every day… ‘How could this happen?’ ‘Who could have done such a thing?’ ‘The military?’ ‘The government?’” Zero-five looked back to the photograph, a similar fire, though cold, stinging and harsh, in his eyes. “Neither. That destruction was due to a citizen. One single, worthless man…”

           “He…” the Commander croaked, “he’s the one…”

           “And that professor was part of it this whole time,” Zero-five said. “He was visiting him in prison. And you alerted him when you bribed him.” He smiled. “He’s the one who obscured his name…to keep you from knowing the truth.”

           For a moment longer, the Commander remained weak, his entire body encased in shakes, his eye wide and wild, his ducktail-styled hair dishevelled. This man… He was the one who had… And that professor… That professor was helping him…

           And then he forced any trace of fragility away. The quivering ceased. The contours of his face became rigid, solid. The pale, sickly complexion was chased out by an ambitious flush. He straightened up and clasped his hands behind his back.

           “Thank you, Zero-five,” he said. Whether he was genuinely appreciative or not to the weak man for revealing this information to him, even he wasn’t sure. He was too fixated on something of much larger importance at that moment. “You’ve provided me a new and much better strategy.”

           Despite such a stony regard, though, Zero-five could see something in the depth of that dark eye.

           “It was my pleasure, sir,” he said, regarding the Commander with satisfaction. A conflagration, that’s what it was. He’d fanned the spark into a tremendous conflagration. Brilliant… “Well, I’d best be on my way. The police will begin looking for me otherwise.”

           With this, Zero-five turned round and walked on.

           Those Powers, they were as good as his, he thought as he retreated from the light.

           And as darkness swallowed him whole, he knew that madman, that bastard… He would soon be reduced to ash.


End file.
